


The White, The Blue, The Beautiful

by Lokisgame



Series: To have and to hold [13]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 06:16:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9059152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokisgame/pseuds/Lokisgame
Summary: His grin was half sheepish, half smug "it looks like it's snowing sleeping bags, Scully"





	

"I've talked to the manager" he entered her room accompanied by a gust of ice cold air "those were the only ones he had" his tone apologetic but his face showed no regret. The look was one of a formed plan, not uncommon on his face.  
"Typical" was all she could say.

The heating in their rooms, the entire motel actually, broke down somewhere around noon that day, when they were fighting their way through the wind and snow of late December. The good people of Somewhere Cold, USA were about to have a very white Christmas. Lucky them.  
When they came back to the motel, tired and chilled to the bone, it was too late to find a new place to stay. The manager supplied them with electric space heaters, but Mulder's broke down after less than an hour. Not that it did any good anyway. He went to Scully to ask if hers was fairing better, but found her with the comforter pulled up to her nose and her coat thrown over it for a third layer. She was shivering like mad. Their luck was legendary like that.

"So, we have two options" he could hear her teeth chattering from the other side of the room "one, we get in the car, start the heater, and one of us is driving while the other one sleeps" she grimaced at that.  
"No sleep that way" she managed to mumble into her blankets "what's the other option?" but she already knew what he would say next.  
"Two" his grin was half smug, half sheepish "it looks like it's snowing sleeping bags, Scully"  
He turned around without waiting for her answer and headed for his room through the connecting door and came back a moment later, sans the coat, wearing gray socks, sweats and a worn down long sleeved Oxford sweatshirt.  
"Any objections?" His question was purely rhetorical as he already threw the comforter from his room over the bed and moved to climb in next to her. She scooted away to create distance between them but at the same time giving him room to slide into bed.  
"Come on Scully, you should be proud of me" he laid on his side facing her, pulling the covers higher around them.  
"Why?" The bed was big enough to fit them both comfortably, if they weren't so cold that is.  
"It's the reasonable thing to do?" He reached over her to switch off the side lamp, the question in his raised eyebrow, her answer in a little nod. The switch clicked.  
"I'm really not comfortable with this" her voice was low but her muscles ached from the shivering through the past half hour. She began to calm and relax from the combined weight of the bedding and the heat radiating of him.  
"You rather freeze to death?" Mulder kept his hands to himself, he was almost forty for God sakes, he could control himself. Or so he thought in his cold bed 20 minutes ago.  
Instead of pulling her close he pushed one hand under the pillow and waited for his eyes to adjust. The light outside the window was orange and fairly bright, the way only snow could reflect the street lamps illuminating the motel parking lot.  
"There's a good chance we wouldn't freeze" she countered, but pushed her freezing toes between his feet. He let her without comment, being a smart ass about it would get him kicked out, he was sure about that.  
"Okay, maybe not freeze, how about catch a mother-of-all-colds?"  
"You men, a runny nose turns you into big babies" she teased.  
"Who, me?" He tried to remember when was the last time he was sick  
"I'm speaking from professional experience" she added mysteriously  
"Why doctor Scully!" He chuckled, as per his usual tactic of diffusing the tension between them "have you nursed many men through common colds?"  
"I had my share" his face fell visibly, she noticed because she was lying with her back to the window, eyes already adjusted to the dim light, and she felt his feet starting to pull back, "but not in recent past" she added softly, keeping him in his place.  
His unconscious reaction to her words was a reflex against the sudden feeling of imagined presence in the room. He assumed a lot and took liberties with her space, but one word from her could push him back a mile away. One word and he'd give her her space.  
He decided to read her body instead. She relaxed further, now mirroring his position, her cheek resting in the palm of her hand, her feet thawing between his, the bed finally warm enough to contemplate sleep. 

"Remember Alaska?" He shifted beside her to make himself more comfortable "I had the worst cold after that"  
"We were not that close back then, Mulder" she didn't know about that, probably because he didn't trust her back then like he did today.  
"It hit me after we came back from quarantine" he rubbed her feet with his, just a bit, making her smile.  
"That case was awful" she sniffed slightly "let's not talk about that one"  
"How about Eisenhower Field... Ouch!" before he finished the thought she kicked him lightly under the sheets, her knee connecting somewhere half way down his shin "what was that for?"  
"That's so you remember to never do that to me again" her tone was almost as cold as the air around them. The problem was that those old memories were becoming too painful for her this days. With how she felt now, she cringed at some of the close calls they faced when they first started working together.  
She forced herself to push the images from her head and focused on the warmth radiating off of him instead. His readiness to care for her, even when something so mundane as a broken heater happened to them. He was a good man. One of the best. Her best friend.  
Her thoughts slowed down as her body relaxed, she drifted away slowly through silence and warmth.  
He watched the change in her, wondering what she meant, feeling like their bodies were having a different conversation altogether.  
"How about..." he started softly  
"Shut up Mulder" she sighed without malice as she covered a yawn, her eyes already closed, body heavy with sleep.  
"G'night Scully" he whispered, and soon followed after her.

When she woke up the next morning, they weren't tangled together. No legs intertwined, no arms resting heavily over chests. No erection pressed into her backside. No clothes missing, no mysterious soreness. Nothing, but his arm stretched out under her pillow and her back resting lightly against his side. Between the double sheets and his warmth she woke up comfortable and well rested.  
Sharp intake of breath behind her, followed by a low groan pushed her farther into a new day.  
"Scully?" feeling she's already awake he chuckled sleepily "help, my arm is dead"  
"Sorry" She lifted her head and moved the pillow freeing his numbed limb "my fault, I must have used it as a pillow at some point" she rubbed his forearm to restore some circulation.  
"What time is it?" He managed to flex his fingers and pump some blood back into them.  
A glance at her watch on the nightstand revealed "7:30"  
"I can't remember when was the last time I slept through the night" he wondered as he rubbed the sleep off his face, then smiled at her "good morning"  
"Morning" she returned his smile and got up to use the bathroom. On her way past it she touched the heating vent and smiled "Will you look at that, they fixed the heating"  
"Seriously?" He didn't believe it enough to get up just yet, instead he watched her as she peered out the east facing window.  
"Oh my, come see this" for that he'd get up, for her.

Looking out, he saw the sun rising over the tops of snow covered pines on the other side of the road. The virgin white snow covering the parking lot was glistening, the cloudless blue sky had the color it only wore in winter.  
The beauty of nature was so majestic, that he had to brace himself against it. He stood close beside her, arm around her shoulders, her arm around his waist. Two humans feeling small in face of the wonders of the world they shared. She looked up at him, he looked down at her and the blue followed his gaze from the sky into her eyes.  
"I'm sorry you couldn't be with your family" he apologized quietly.  
"That's okay, Mulder. Merry Christmas" she gave him half a hug, and turned back to the view outside their window  
"Merry Christmas Scully" he replied kissing the top of her head.

**Author's Note:**

> For L; for that one morning among millions we shared


End file.
